


25 Days Has September - Dark

by Davechicken



Series: 25 Days Has September [3]
Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-03
Updated: 2013-09-03
Packaged: 2017-12-25 12:59:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/953390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Davechicken/pseuds/Davechicken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>25 prompts for 25 days of September until Season 2</p>
            </blockquote>





	25 Days Has September - Dark

Outside, in the streets, people are wandering about getting drunk and screaming abuse at one another. It started two nights after the power went out, when people stopped thinking it was just a brief problem and started to panic. It lasts for most of the night. Ben tried once to get them to be quiet and nearly got shot for his efforts. After that, they just gave in.

Normally Rachel can tune it out. Can filter out the cries and the bangs and the screaming and the sound of glass breaking. They aren't going to be safe in the house much longer, but being hyper-vigilant is wearing her out. Tomorrow. Tomorrow she will tell Ben they have to go. Have to leave. But tomorrow. Not tonight.

Tonight she can't sleep, though, so she sits on the top stair and rests her head on the banister. Ben has already gone to bed, but she just couldn't face it. Couldn't lie there in his arms with the maelstrom outside. Instead she is listening with her eyes closed in the dark. Closed because with the moon behind the clouds, there's almost nothing to see and all she can do let the soundwaves wash over her from inside and out. The creak of wood and the wind making the windows rattle. 

The sounds of a small child trying very, very hard to cry quietly. When she finds the thread of sound, it's unmistakeable. She rises on instinct, because the sound of one of her children in distress is hard-wired into her. She spent enough nights with Charlie - even more with Danny - getting up in the small hours to lull them back to sleep.

Surprisingly it's Charlie who is distressed tonight, though. Her eyes flicker over the slowly-moving form of her youngest and she knows he's okay for now. Charlie, however, is sitting up by her pillows with the covers pulled up and over her head. 

"Hey," Rachel calls out softly, so as not to wake Danny. "Sweetie... it's okay. It's Mommy." She reaches out and glances her fingers against her daughter's shoulders.

"Can't," Charlie hisses back at her. "Can't come out."

"It's okay," Rachel replies. She sits on the edge of the bed and keeps her hand on Charlie's shoulder. "You don't have to."

"Good."

Rachel is tired. So very, very tired. Her eyes are dry and itchy, and there's that low-level blur of pain she doesn't remember being this bad since college. But Charlie is upset so she has to push through it. "Do you want to tell me what's wrong?"

"No."

"Okay. Do you mind if I come under there, too?"

There's a little shuffle as she thinks about it, then the heap nods.

Rachel carefully pulls back the edge and peeks underneath. She can't see anything, but that's probably the point.

"Can't sleep?"

Charlie nods.

"Me either. Maybe we could not-sleep together?"

Charlie nods again... and then she flings herself into her mother's arms. Rachel wraps around her and cradles her head against her chest. Lets her fingers tease through her soft hair. Lets touch take over.

"I'm not afraid of the dark," her little angel insists. "It's just that I can't see the monsters if it's dark."

"Don't worry," Rachel replies. "I'll be right here between you and any monsters. I'm a monster-killer."

Charlie considers this for a moment then nods again. "Okay. If you promise to save me, I can go to sleep."

"I promise, Charlie. I promise I will always keep you safe."

And that's good enough for her little girl, who settles down and lets Rachel pull them both lying flat on the mattress, listening to the uneven sounds of Danny's breathing.

She wonders who will save Charlie from her, though. Because on nights like this, she realises she's the biggest monster of all.


End file.
